by Aer-ki Jyr
Some of that space was made up of rock forming structural columns that kept the thick crust of the planet from collapsing in on the structures, but most of the internal space were the preserves. Park-like areas where the prisoners lived in a more or less ‘natural’ habitat like a zoo. There were even observation platforms set up for visitors to look out over the lizards’ conquests, and when too many of them died or were expended in various experiments or other activities they’d be compelled to reproduce…either naturally or forced via more medical ‘treatments.’
There wasn’t a lot logged now, but occasionally across the planet there were scheduled abductions from the preserves where the lizards would go in and capture who they wanted, then take them to facilities where they did whatever it was they wanted…including eating them. He’d found evidence that some higher ranking lizards were allowed the privilege of consuming the prisoners. Not enough to threaten their population numbers, but they were considered a delicacy.
Recently there had been no such consumptions, dating back for nearly 13 years. To Paul that told him the lizard leaders were long gone from this system, having evacuated prior to the invasion and took who knew what with them. There were still masterminds in the system, Paul knew that from how the fleets had fought, but the templars and sovereigns were obviously gone.
He’d expected as much, but it seemed they hadn’t been able to take their living trophies with them, and he hoped there was a lot more they’d been forced to leave behind…though he expected most of it to be loaded up with booby-traps to kill interested Archons.
That was why he’d spent so much time digging through the lizard computer systems. If there was a failsafe mechanism it would probably be manually triggered, meaning that the lizards in this facility would need to have a quick way to activate it. That meant it should have been easy for Paul to find, but there was nothing he could locate. There was still the chance that there were hidden automated triggers, but nothing he’d found even hinted at there being destructive mechanisms built into the preserves.
His skills were decent, but he’d also had some software techs brought down in armor to take over the job from him. They’d stay here under guard in combat mode just in case the atmosphere suddenly vented from the facility. If they secured this place he’d be able to bring down people in a shirtsleeve environment, but he wasn’t going to risk that yet. The lizards had known they were coming here for years and had plenty of time to prepare all kinds of subtle surprises for them.
So Paul left the hackers, which were commonly called ‘slicers’ when it involved alien computer systems, to their task and headed off with a small detachment of Archons to one of the internal lifts after releasing their prisoners. He woke them up himself and the Archons had telekinetically held them in place as they instructed them to go and tell the others here that they had the option of surrendering and living, but that if they didn’t they’d all be hunted down and killed shortly.
Part of those lizards tried to attack the Archons, humorously, without being able to lay a finger on them. Eventually they gave up and left with the others, running off into the facility as Paul made an announcement to everyone via the comms and internal computer systems that he had the slicers keep sending out.
He had no doubt those lizards they’d released would fight to the death, but Star Force didn’t kill prisoners and they’d at least have a choice in their own fates. That said, while Paul gave them a head start, any lizards they ran into from this point on that didn’t surrender to them were going to be killed on sight.
The trailblazer had a renewed anger at the lizards after reading through some of the things that had been happening here, so now that he had the terms of engagement set to his liking he wasn’t going to hold back.
With teams spreading throughout the planet’s interior heading to very distant locations where there were clusters of enemies present, Paul took his 12 Archon group over to the water regions. He’d called for and received his aquatics armor from the ship, as had the eleven others with him. He’d swapped it out back in the control room and was now clunkily running through the facility, but that sensation would disappear when he got in the water.
But first he had lizards to kill, and when they got to the end of the last lift transit the doors opened to reveal lizards waiting for them with weapons drawn. They opened fire immediately, but there was no chance of them getting through the Archons’ shields in the few seconds it took the superhumans to cross the floor to get to them. A handful of seconds later the lizards were dead and the Archons were moving on, noting that these had been aquatic variants, and eventually split up and hunted down all the lizards in this area, after which they regrouped in the local control room for a quick look through the database.
Some of the logs were identical to what he’d accessed remotely, but some were only stored here and dealing with the various aquatic races they held, each in a separate preserve. This control hub oversaw 6 different ones, with others being services by other locations. Paul would get to those eventually, but as he reviewed the basics of the security measures he found no booby-traps or defensive weapons aside from around the entry hatches. Beyond that there was nothing for the inhabitants to attack, with the solid walls around the chamber leading to nowhere even if they had somehow dug through them.
“Let’s go,” Paul said, leading the Archons out to one of the observation platforms that existed above water level. Most were beneath the artificial lakes and accessible via clear tunnels that would take them in amidst the denizens but safe from any potential threat by the thick, clear material of the tubes, but there were a handful above the waterline where the lizards could look down on the surface where some races would poke up for air or even on small bits of land for those that were amphibious.
The preserve Paul was heading to did not contain any of those, nor were they air breathers, but they had open air access anyway in addition to the subsurface entrances and exits. When he got to one of the decks that existed only a few meters above the calm lake he punched the safety glass and cracked it. Several more hits reduced its structural integrity, then he summoned up a distortion around the armor on his right arm and held it out towards the glass, barely inches away, then released the Jumat blast.
The glass shattered and blew out over the lake, falling into the water as the Archons jumped through the gap and followed it down into the previously tranquil reservoir. Paul could already sense the disruption in the minds below, but he also felt something sickly about them and knew it wasn’t his imagination.
He swam through the water using his armor’s jets with the other Archons following in his wake as he headed towards the nearest group of prisoners. Many swam away, knowing they couldn’t escape but not wanting to submit to whatever was coming, but a few stayed put and Paul could sense that they knew that they weren’t lizards, or at least anything like what they had seen before.
Paul swam up near them then came to a halt some 20 meters away so not to spook them further, for he could feel their fear and how it was a common place thing for them, choking and rotting away their minds. He activated the translation program so that his armor would speak in the impossible to reproduce Elarioni underwater language and addressed those nearest to him.
“We are friends of the Elarioni and are not here to hurt you. We have come to destroy the lizards and did not know you were here. Now that we do, you will be freed.”
“You…you speak our words?” one asked, with the translation coming from Paul’s own armor though he could also hear her actual words as well as all other sounds in the watery environment.
“Yes. Your people taught them to us.”
“Who are you?”
“We are known as Star Force. My name is Paul. I’m sorry to say that you must stay here a little while longer. My troops are moving throughout this planet killing the lizards, but we did not bring any aquatics capable ships with us. We will send for some to come here and take you away, but it will take time. Right now I n
eed to know if any of you know of any means the lizards have of killing you before we can take you away. Are there any explosives in here, poisons, or any other traps they could activate to prevent us from saving you?”
The Elarioni around him, glowing with bioluminescent on body patches and their golden eyes, didn’t speak. Their minds were having such a hard time comprehending this that they were just locking up, with many of them running through possible horrors that could result from this and others trying to shut out emotions that were surging to the surface now that it appeared that there was hope.
Paul gave them time, but eventually another swam up to them from further away as the rest of the hundreds in this one lake swam nearby but kept their distance, forming a huge circle around them, then extending it down below in a bowl shape as what Paul sensed was their leader swam up to within a few meters of him.
“We do not know much,” she apologized. “All those who were brought here from the stars have since died. All of those you see here were born here. We know our place well. There are no devices of which you speak. The lizards come in and take us when they wish. Only their entry portal is guarded with a stun weapon. Most of those who pass through it do not return. Those that do are damaged or carrying fertilized eggs. I do not believe they want us harmed unless it is done outside these walls. Are there really others out there, like us, beyond this place?”
“Yes,” Paul said, telepathically trying to calm her teetering nerves. “We are allied with some of your kin, while others are part of our empire. We would have brought them with us, but we did not know you were here.”
“What is happening outside?”
“We are taking this star system from the lizards.”
“Star system?”
Paul looked at her, suddenly realizing how little these Elarioni knew. Whatever they’d been taught had to be passed down from one to another, so they were probably very naïve…not to mention traumatized.
“There are many planets located around the nearest star. The lizards own them and we are taking them away from them, as we have been doing around all their other stars. There are many more that we have yet to conquer, but this place is their capitol and contains their homeworld. Where you are right now is inside a small planet further out from their main ones. It is a prison. Do you understand what a prison is?”
“A place to keep people.”
“The lizards defeated a part of your race in battle and took some of the survivors as prisoners, brought them here, and you were descended from them. They claim you as their property, and we are here to take you from them.”
“What will you do with us?” she said, worrying about a number of things but also eager to and afraid to go someplace beyond these walls. They were all she had ever known, but a part of her did not want to be here and those conflicting thoughts were fighting inside her right now.
“We will take you away from here and let you live with your kin. What happens to you after that will be your choice. You are not our prisoners or our property. You will be free.”
“Free?”
“Free,” Paul said pointedly. “You may not fully understand what that means, but no one will control you and you will be able to go where you want when you want.”
Another Elarioni swam up near him, but stayed a little bit behind the other one. “Are there others here?”
Paul searched her mind quickly, finding the reference that he needed.
“There are other prisons like this within the planet. Some have other races, a few have Elarioni like you. You have had no contact with them?”
“A few of us have been moved and they tell stories.”
“You are the first that I have found here, but I know where the others are. I will leave and go tell them what is happening, but it will be some time before I can get you out of here. Most of this place is air.”
Paul felt that word ripple through all of the Elarioni here. ‘Air’ to them meant toxic and death, for they were purely water breathers. “We will move you in water when we are able, but until then you must wait here while we make preparations and remove the lizards from this place. How much food do you have?”
“Very little. They give us additional pellets daily. If they are not here we will not have enough food to live…” she said, hesitating as she glanced at the others, summoning up as much courage as she had. “We have hid a bit more over the years, so we are not in immediate need, but it will not last long. How soon can you take us from this place?”
“Not soon enough. We’ll find what the lizards were feeding you and make sure you have enough to survive until we can get you some real food. We can make it on our ships, though I’m not sure how much will be needed. Do you have a way of measuring time?”
“Feeding cycles.”
“Are any of your people injured?”
He could sense she didn’t want to answer that, fearing for them, but he dosed her up heavily with trusting feelings and insulated her from the subconscious telepathy that the Elarioni used.
“Yes. Four are hurt. They are hidden.”
“Take me to them…so that I can help them,” he added when her fear spiked out of control. “I don’t want any of you to die before we can take you from this place.”
It took some more finagling but eventually Paul as taken to a place on the floor of the facility where there were decent approximations of rock and plants that would be in a natural lake. Stuffed into a crevice were several Elarioni that showed visible signs of experimental surgeries, with one in particular that was barely hanging onto life.
Paul swam down beside her and triggered his right glove to retract. His wrist sealed around it so no water got into the rest of his armor, but he needed physical contact to make his Haemra work. Talking the Elarioni down took some time and he didn’t want to force this, but eventually he got her permission and gently placed his alien hand on her thick tail that replaced for what a Human would have been legs. He held the contact, numbing up her body so she couldn’t feel the pain any longer, nor could she move, but he let her retain her ability to talk to the others.
What the lizards had been doing involved several internal organs that had been damaged and altered in ways that were crude and not part of Elarioni physiology. He guessed they were waiting to see how long the alterations lasted before this one died, then would probably study the corpse and gather data. He was committed to make sure that didn’t happen here, but he wasn’t going to be able to trigger a regrow of her organs with the mutilated ones still here, so he triggered flash growth of tiny areas, making patches and temporary alterations to try and keep her alive long enough to get her to the Excalibur. She wasn’t going to last long enough to get an aquatics ship here, so the crew was going to have to fashion a mobile tank to get her moved and up to a med bay.
One of the Archons with him turned around and swam off, heading back immediately to get that in the works while Paul stayed here healing her as much as he could then working on the others to buy them time. What the lizards had done here was inexcusable, but he’d be damned if any more of these people were lost now that they were in his custody.
5
July 3, 3202
Krachnika System (lizard capitol/homeworld)
Hemratik
Paul stood outside the glass looking in on another preserve, with a mix of sadness and relief. There were still Archon and Commando teams moving around the planetary facility hunting down the remaining lizards and securing level after level to make sure none slipped by, but there was no way for them to get reinforcements on or off with his fleet in orbit so it was just a matter of time before they were all killed and the facility was his.
Them fighting to the death as usual wasn’t what he was sad about. It was the occupants here. He’d been visiting a lot of the races, some he knew, a lot he didn’t, and all of them had to stay put until he could get a large enough relief fleet here to evacuate them. That meant civilian jumpships configured to carry a wide range of races, including
the rock-like aliens he was looking at now. They weren’t moving around, just standing in place like statues in a very small enclosure compared to the others built here. They had about a half mile wide region that contained some 3,000 of them based off a quick glance, and there were a few other identical facilities nearby.
In total there were about 12,000 survivors, and Paul couldn’t tell by looking at them what their physical status was, but from their minds he could draw a different kind of picture. These Kvash were in bad shape, for the most part, but a few were younger, having been born here more recently, and that youth meant less wear and tear on them from captivity, though their minds were not the same as they should be. With each generation they’d lose their identity, until after enough years they’d be completely institutionalized. There wouldn’t be any trace of Kvash knowledge or culture remaining, save for maybe their language, but he doubted that most of these Kvash could even read or write by this point.
The other races here were no different, but here was an old ally that Paul had thought was destroyed and he knew that no matter how bad off these Kvash were he’d be able to save them and restart their race within Star Force. They’d once had a population upwards of 50 trillion and were arguably the strongest race within the original Alliance until the lizards had eventually defeated them. They hadn’t evacuated to the ADZ with the others, going their own way and fighting to the last in what was for all intents and purposes an unwinnable fight, and only thanks to the Hycre did the Bsidd come out of that to land in the ADZ, for they’d suffered the same fate.
There were Bsidd here too, though Paul hadn’t gotten around to seeing them yet. He was going to rescue everyone here, but the Kvash were a race that had predated Star Force’s rise to dominance. They’d worked together in some small ways in the past, but they had always been the stronger and a bit brusque with the Humans. They had no idea what Star Force would become, and he was glad that they weren’t completely wiped out from the galaxy, even if this had been the way they’d been forced to survive.